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Separatists division raises chance for election success in Eastern Ukraine

Separatists division raises chance for election success in Eastern Ukraine

22 May 2014

With a crucial presidential election happening on Sunday, divisions are seen among the various separatist groups that have seized control of public buildings in many cities in Donetsk and Luhansk regions of eastern Ukraine (Donbass).

 

Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the self-declared mayor of Slovyansk (a city in Donetsk region which is under full control of terrorists) said in an interview with the New York Times he did not recognize the authority of the self-proclaimed government of the Donetsk region and suggested he could use force to seize control. “We are here fighting, and they are sitting around stuffing themselves,” Ponomaryov said by telephone from the city. “It’s not a difference of opinion,” he said. “We have fundamentally opposing views.”

 

But with armed groups in Slovyansk and elsewhere under the control of a shadowy military commander named Igor Strelkov, it was not immediately clear that Ponomaryov’s denunciation of his fellow revolutionaries carried any real weight. The separatist groups were further demoralized earlier this week when Russian President Putin announced his intention to withdraw tens of thousands of Russian troops from the Ukrainian border, recommended that Ukraine solve its political problems through dialogue, and even expressed some support to the presidential election.

 

Denis Pushilin, a representative of Donetsk People’s Republic which earlier was declared a terrorist organization, denounced the military campaign and said that if it continued it could provoke a military response from Russia. Speaking in his office in the seized regional administration building in Donetsk, Pushilin denied any rift between himself and Ponomaryov. But Pushilin said that relations remained strong with Strelkov, an ex-Russian special forces officer who is considered to control all the paramilitary rebel groups in the region.

 

Ukrainian media sources have reported that heightened tensions have led to arguments and even armed clashes among rebel commanders in several cities. Both Pushilin and Ponomaryov denied that serious fighting had taken place.

 

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s interim government is trying to gain support for the vote in Donbass on Sunday. At the third round-table session in the southern city of Mykolaiv, representatives of the central government received a basically warm reception and broad support for the talks, which are intended to help resolve the political crisis. Mykola Romanchuk, the governor of the Mykolaiv region, praised the effort at dialogue. “The right way to solve any problems — economic, judicial and, today, political,” Romanchuk said. Officials have described Sunday’s presidential election as critical to Ukraine’s moving forward after the recent months of unrest. The acting Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the government was working steadily to carry out a series of structural changes, including constitutional amendments, and a decentralization plan that will give greater budget authority to local officials.

 

In his statement on Wednesday, Yatsenyuk said, “In the last few days, the situation in Donbass has turned around. The self-proclaimed Donbass republics will control neither Donbass nor Ukraine. I can call it an achievement of our common efforts.”

 

Later in the day, in a visit to a military base located near the city of Slovyansk, Oleksandr Turchynov, Ukraine’s acting president, told local news media that Kyiv’s military campaign against the rebel groups was entering its “final phase” and vowed to “cleanse the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of terrorists.”

 

Meanwhile, the situation is Donbass remains very unstable today. According to reports from military expert Dmytro Tymchuk, terrorists attacked Ukrainian forces near the city of Volnovakha on May 22. As a result of the attack, eight Ukrainian soldiers were killed, according to Tymchuk. Notably, Volnovakha is located far away (about 120 km to the south) from the most hot cities, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, and there had been no violence in that location before. The Ministry of Defense is also reporting on fierce battles near Rubizhne, a city located about 50 km to the east of Sloviank.

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